Laura Reed, Ph.D.

Dr. Laura Reed is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama in the Department of Biological Sciences. She was trained as an evolutionary biologist, and her current research focuses on studying complex traits like metabolic disease that are the result of genetic effects and the environment, using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism. “The high prevalence of diabetes in modern human populations is an especially interesting evolutionary puzzle,” says Dr. Reed, “since it results from too much of a good thing, something humans are not adapted to cope with.”

Outside of her research, Dr. Reed has taken a strong interest in helping the community. She spearheaded the development of a middle school education program in Tuscaloosa. “One of the primary goals of the outreach program is to provide middle school students with scientist role models,” says Dr. Reed. “Middle school is when girls and minority students especially lose confidence in their ability to perform well in STEM fields. Our expectation is that by directly counteracting student misconceptions about who takes part in scientific research, more of them will envision themselves as future scientists.”

Dr. Reed was also involved in a program called Project UNITED, whose goal was to help develop scientist/community-based partnerships to improve metabolic health in the Black Belt. She hopes to continue to establish connections in local communities and the Black Belt in order to form an independent partnership.

Dr. Reed was born in Eugene, Oregon, where she attended the University of Oregon for her undergraduate education. She went on to obtain a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona and to complete her post-doctoral work at North Carolina State University.

DiET would like to thank Dr. Laura Reed for her continued research in the fields of diabetes and metabolic syndrome, and for her work in the community outside of her research. DiET pinned Dr. Reed as part of the International Diabetes Federation’s “Pin a Personality” campaign, and as a way to thank her and shine a light on all that she does. Be sure to check out the rest of the pictures from her pinning as well as other information at www.alabamadiet.org under the WDD 2015 tab, and be sure to take a look Dr. Reed’s website at http://flygxe.ua.edu/